Six Killed In Caucasus Counterterror Op

Russian authorities say security forces have killed six militants in the restive North Caucasus republic of Kabardino-Balkaria.

The National Antiterrorist Committee (NAK) says the militants were surrounded in an apartment building on July 23 during a counterterrorism operation in the regional capital, Nalchik.

It says security forces also found a big illegal laboratory used to make explosives.

The mostly Muslim regions of Russia's North Caucasus are plagued by attacks and fighting between security forces and militants in an Islamist insurgency stemming from two post-Soviet separatist wars in Chechnya, east of Kabardino-Balkaria.